Watford FC 1-0 Sunderland - 01/04/2017

What was Niang's problem in the first half when he just stood there rooted to the spot around the half way line in front of the GT and seemed to refuse to do anything other than pass the ball back to the player who had passed it to him. Seemed to go on for a minute or so.

 

Much better fare than recent weeks. Kaboul was keeping Defoe in check until he went off but, after that, the team did look more balanced because everyone was in their preferred position. It's not rocket science Walter! That's no comment on Kaboul at all b.t.w. I like the way he gets forward and his distribution's better than the other c.bs. But Craig Cathcart isn't a right back.

I agree with everything that's been said about Pickford. His distribution was awesome. Pinging flat balls with the outside of his foot to team-mates 50 yds. away. Attacking midfielders would have been very proud of some of them.

He's a hometown boy of course but, if they do go down (as looks increasingly likely), he might very well be looking around. And we should be interested although I can't believe we wouldn't have stiff competition.

 

It was David Moyes, whom Defoe was running towards, who told him to kick the ball out. Defoe looked a bit peeved at the instruction.

Shows why DM has a reputation of a ruthless winner.

 

Not to detract from Pickford, agree his distribution was excellent, however other than the Doucoure and Success efforts - which were good - I felt most of the saves were routine for a Premier League keeper and should be expected to make them.

 

Amrabat was ****

 

The general perception I’m getting from reading the forum tonight is one of result dictating opinion.

Had Sunderland scored today, we would have struggled to get anything from the game yet again. There have been so many games like this. Only 5 clean sheets, and they’ve all come from the bottom four clubs, which tells its own story.

You have to consider the opposition. At this stage of the season, they are bottom for a reason.

Watford should have been the dominant force today, especially at home, but there is a real problem with cohesion.

We have players who can do good things in isolated incidents, but team play is poor in general.

Was today an improvement? Not really. You only need small uplift in the opposition’s ability to cause us problems.

From the way we are playing, I think points will be hard to come by for the rest of the season. This was a vital win. Swansea should provide us with another winnable game, but we’ll have to improve an awful lot to pick up points against the rest.

We’ve given ourselves a chance now of staying up, but we are nowhere near safe. Sunderland will not catch us now, and Boro have only an outside chance, but the third from bottom is still up for grabs and we are very much part of the group trying to avoid it.

I look at Swansea, West Brom and maybe Hull as the three games where we can pick up points, but I don’t give us too much hope in any of the others.

There were good defensive performances today though. Gomes was excellent and Cathcart was immense. He was my MotM. Britos was erratic. Occasionally doing good things, but spoiling it with 50 pence headers and poor distribution.

Doucoure played well, and is one player who gives me a little bit of hope. Good job injuries gave him a chance or else we’d have not seen him. Mazaarri didn’t rate him and only a last minute hitch prevented him from being loaned out to Lorient in January.

Niang is a bit of an enigma. Does some good things, but really has to stamp his mark of games. I really don’t think he’s done anywhere near enough to earn a permanent transfer in the summer…….yet.

Okaka was ok aka. Did some good things and was involved in the move for the only goal, but is another who has to do a lot more.

All others were a 6 out of 10 today.

I’m delighted we won, but I fear for us…….although we should just sneak over the line.

 

That was right in front of me and he was completely shattered. Slightly worrying after just one run

 

Boy that's a pessimistic post. Liked in error.

 

Yes but what a gentleman Defoe is though. I actually love the bloke even more now I know it wasn't him.

 

And there's a reason why we were in the top half after the final whistle today.

 

I keep seeing references (BBC comments, Wobby comments) about Amrabat having a dust-up with Mazzarri in the dressing room after the game. Bollox? Late April fool?

 

When was the last time a defender scored with an assist from another defender?

 

He did seem rather p'd off that he had to go off. He was a bit unlucky tbh, was playing well and didn't deserve to be subbed.

 

January.

 

Down to 12th...Maz out...

 

Amrabat's final ball is always poor

 

Thought he was awful and deservedly subbed



Sent from my MotoG3 using Tapatalk

 

I agree that there are still question marks about our play in general but today we were absolutely the dominant force - Pickford had to make some good saves, we hit the woodwork, missed a one on one, had a break where it was 5 on 3, Capoue was a whisker away with a drive, Okaka headed a good chance over the bar, Doucoure tried to slip in Niang but got the pass wrong. We had 23 shots, 10 of which were on target, as well as the other decent chances where we didn't hit the target - we completely dominated that game and it was a clear improvement on recent weeks (albeit from a low bar).

Ok the opposition were dreadful but I'm not sure what else you'd want from today's game? It seems a completely perverse reading of the game to imply we were lucky to win it.

 

A completely contrived result between 2 teams desperate to see Wally sacked. The FA should investigate.

 

I do not think we were lucky to win. but we are not convincing and had Sunderland taken the lead today, I felt we would have struggled. We ended the game being pinned back for long periods. We should have had the ability to go on and win convincingly, but we ended clinging on against the bottom club, like is often the case.

As always, brutal honesty is not appreciated on this forum. So very predictable.

 

It was his first game for 4 months.

 

I don't agree as usual. But I am glad you are back posting

 

The only brutal honesty is we're not as good as you think we are.

 

Damn my quote skills. The Devster's stuff popped in there as well.

 

At this stage in the season I think that's reasonable, a good performance but a poor result wouldn't cut it right now.

A hypothetical situation that I don't think was particularly likely. Hypothetically, Success could have put away his 1v1 and buried the game, an outcome more likely in my view.

I'm having a hard time balancing this point, and Sunderland potentially scoring.

Statistically we were. Apart from the nervy patch at the end I think Watford were generally in control.

Agreed. I thought plenty of players did good things today, but team support wasn't there to fully capitalise on it and punish the opposition.

Disagree. The lack of long balls was at least one marked improvement. There were also more

There will be a few teams that pick up completely unexpected wins from now till the end, there always is. If this season shows anything, it is that the team can play well when it picks and chooses. I wouldn't be surprised to see an Arsenal-esque win out of the blue.

We had a chance before the game, irrespective of result. We are part of the group, but we're also near the top of that group.

See previous comments.

Agreed, but I would put Doucoure MOTM. Britos' distribution was poor, but his positive contributions were more than occasional.

Doucoure's loan to Lorient fell through in the summer http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/sport/14718262.Doucoure_named_in_Watford_squad_after_loan_falls_through/, not January. I did find Mazzarri's early exclusion of him bizarre, but we have the benefit of hindsight.

Partially agree. I would still love to have him, but not sure he's worth the money claimed.

He did alright, suffered along with the other front two from lack of game-time together. Always looks a better player when he's focused on playing, rather than falling down and moaning.

 

We are not as good as we should be. If you think differently, then that's your opinion.

With the money invested in the coaching and playing staff, we should be seeing a lot more. We seem to just manage to get these marginal wins, or fortunate draws, but it's not really good enough. There should be a lot more assured performances, with a stamp of authority against the teams below us.

Where do you feel our rightful position should be? 17th? Bottom 3? I think we should be playing like a side with a greater ambition than that. I look at our squad and we really should be a far more assured and cohesive unit by now.

 

Easy win today against a really poor Sunderland team, would've been nice to score a few more goals and on another day we may have, but that's football for you.

 

I think this has been mentioned before but who in our side would get in a top 10 side?

 

It's not about league placements. It's about performances week in, week out. This is how I measure the side. My perception is that we are continually underperforming. Only 7 points from relegation and we've still got Swansea and Hull to play. Mess those games up and we'll be in real trouble.

As someone said, we were 10th at the final whistle, then 12th two hours later. The bottom half of the table is ridiculously tight. Only a handful of points separates half the league. A bad run of results could even see a team placed 10th go down.

We are not a solid 12th........we are a flaky one, that could very quickly disappear in a blink if we do not improve as a team very rapidly.

 

I think Mazzarri would be proud. He makes enough excuses for himself without you adding to it. Don't forget bad luck, poor referring, and the wrong type of rain.

 

They were, in Zola's first season. There's absolutely no doubt about it. Not this season though. It's just not true to say officials have been poor.

Mazzarri's reading of the game is often so distorted, it bears no reality to what actually happened.

We had a little blip with injuries, but it didn't last that long. It's not the reason why we've not played well all season. It's not helpful of course, but it's too easy to point to that and say this is why. All teams get injuries.

I just feel Mazzarri's not got to grips with the job at all. For me this season could go either way. Our chances of staying up are no better than 60/40 (in our favour). Our fate massively relies on the results we get against West Brom and Swansea. Fail to win at least one of those, then Hull away could be the decider.

 

You've quoted bookie odds in the past so just for balance they go 95/5 we stay up verses your 60/40.

 

HB1 - We had a little blip with injuries?!
We have had over 50 injuries and yet we have still had a deep enough squad to get through that and gain points during that time.

From your comments I'm pretty sure you weren't there today. We dominated the match throughout and although only 1-0 we were comfortable and all the team had good games with a few of them being outstanding. We interchanged positions and there was a lot of running and covering for each other.

The fact is we have improved from last year, incrementaly, and next year we will improve a bit more. We have not been in a relegation fight and won't be; in fact we are likely to finish with similar points to last season, maybe a few more, we will see.

Roll on Tuesday as Pullis brings his bus to town again...
Should be interesting how we deal with that - lots of square balls and long diagonals I suspect but another win!